ElevenLabs and the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) have signed a memorandum of understanding under which eligible people who have lost the ability to speak may receive free lifetime access to a synthetic version of their own voice. Moneycontrol reported the agreement, signed on 6 October 2026 at ElevenLabs’ first India Summit in Bengaluru. The report does not say who qualifies, how to apply or when it starts, so this is an announced intention, not yet an open programme.
What was announced
According to Moneycontrol, ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski and Karnataka’s IT/BT minister Priyank Kharge formalised the MoU with KITS at the Bengaluru event. The report describes it as ElevenLabs’ first such partnership with an Indian state government.
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As reported, free lifetime licences will go to eligible citizens identified by the state, or by organisations working under its guidance, through ElevenLabs’ One Million Voices programme, which the report says began in 2024. KITS is engaging the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) in Mysuru to explore implementation and identify eligible beneficiaries.
Who the voice-restoration effort is for
The programme targets people who have lost the ability to speak because of conditions such as oral or throat cancer, ALS and other neurological or degenerative conditions. The intended result is communication through a synthetic version of the person’s own voice, including in Kannada.
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This is voice output technology, not a medical treatment. It does not bring back biological speech; it lets a person communicate using a voice model that sounds like them.
Supporting organisations
The report names five organisations supporting the programme in India: ALS Care and Support Foundation, Organization for Rare Diseases India, Yes We Can, Nipman Foundation and The Quantum Hub. Their specific responsibilities in Karnataka have not been detailed.
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What is not yet known
- Final eligibility rules, and whether people can apply directly or must be referred.
- The launch date and the first rollout region.
- Whether AIISH or the named organisations have formal delivery roles.
- Supported devices, and which languages are available at launch.
- Any measured outcomes. None have been reported for Karnataka.
Anyone who may be eligible should wait for an official announcement from the Karnataka government or KITS. Those details are not in the report, and no hardware purchase is described as required.
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Beyond voice restoration: government voice AI
The MoU also covers exploring voice AI in citizen helplines, grievance redressal, access to government information and entitlements, and voice interfaces in Kannada and other languages used in Karnataka. These are areas to explore, not live services.
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Earlier, Karnataka’s IT/BT Department publicly described talks with ElevenLabs on multilingual speech and conversational AI for public services, accessibility and governance bottlenecks. A later department post listed possible pilot areas: voice-enabled interview practice in Indian languages, investor information, healthcare, culture, citizen services, voice restoration and responsible-AI safeguards. It named a roadmap and an initial pilot with measurable public impact as the next step. That shows exploration, not launched pilots.
Language coverage
Moneycontrol reported that ElevenLabs supported 14 Indian languages at the time of the announcement and plans to extend to all 22 official languages in the coming months. That is a company statement about the future. It does not mean every Karnataka service, or every dialect, will be supported.
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Vendor claims to treat carefully
ElevenLabs’ government product page describes voice and chat agents, transcription, public-information audio, human escalation and several deployment options. Its outcome figures come from other deployments, such as a claimed 25% share of Ukraine’s national employment line. They are company claims and say nothing about results in Karnataka.
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Safety framework for voice cloning
The report says the parties will work toward a platform-agnostic safety framework for voice AI, as part of Karnataka’s Responsible AI framework. Areas to examine include:
- deepfake detection;
- audio provenance and watermarking;
- consent for voice cloning;
- restrictions on cloning public figures;
- protection from voice fraud and impersonation.
The framework has not been described as finished. For a programme that builds voice models of vulnerable patients, how consent and data are handled matters as much as the technology, and those terms have not been published.
What officials said
Moneycontrol quoted Priyank Kharge: “AI must ultimately be measured by the difference it makes to people’s lives… The possibility of helping people who have lost the ability to speak communicate again in a voice of their own is a powerful example of using technology for public good.”
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesIt quoted Mati Staniszewski: “Voice is the most natural way people interact with technology, and we’re excited to work with the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society to explore how voice AI can make citizen services more accessible and restore the voices of those who have lost theirs.”
No MoU text or official transcript was available, so the details here rest on Moneycontrol’s reporting.
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